weddings weddings and more

so anand and i were walking down the street today, and we ran into one of his neighbors, a guy i met and connected with last time, and at the end of our conversation, he told us about his sister's wedding tonight and invited us. if we go, this will be our 5th indian wedding in about two weeks. be careful what you ask for, last time, i was really disappointed we didn't go to one, so i prayed next time i would. and i thought i would be going to less weddings by spending 7 weeks in india...

6/25-26 went to a Christian wedding today in the state of Karnataka (4 hr bus ride from here). it was in a church sponsored by a umc church from louisville kentucky. i was floored by umc churches everywhere, we were even in villages where the majority of people were christians. interesting that in the same area in just the past few years, churches have been burned under hindu extremist persecution. the wedding itself was a lot like american weddings in its structure, and it was so fun to add to the variety of indian weddings we've attended (hindu and tribal banjara weddings). we stayed the night there with this amazingly welcoming family, we were so blessed.

now we're back in hyderabad, met some people from y.w.a.m. today, sounds like they're doing awesome stuff with their dts school, we might even get to go encourage some students.

on the 1st we're heading back to the village for up to a week. pray for provision, protection, favor in our work (foundations for the home and school buildings are being built as we speak), God's timing - children set to move into their permanent home/school starting out of nowhere before the end of august, and of course the spreading of some great news to the people of the villages.

if that school thing caught you off guard, God gave anand vision to start a school (was already going to home school the home kids anyway) and he already has people in line to teach. there is no school in the village or any surrounding villages, so we talked to families when we were there 3 days ago and they're all interested. because the teachers are servants in minist., school will be affordable to the villagers, while still making a little money to sustain the orphanage. the school plan came together more or less in the past 2 weeks, so our heads are spinning too at the thought of it, but it looks to be an incredible blessing in all of these mostly unreached villages.